Bellator 75 set for Oct. 5 in Hammond, Ind., with heavyweight tournament start

Bellator’s Season 7 heavyweight tournament will kick off in October in Indiana steel country.

Bellator 75 is set for The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind., on Oct. 5. It will be the promotion’s second event of its seventh season and second visit to the venue, which is located just 20 miles from Chicago in Northwest Indiana.

Bellator 75 will have a main card that airs on MTV2 (and in high definition on EPIX). Preliminary-card fights stream on Spike.com. Tickets for the event are on sale through Ticketmaster and at the Horseshoe Casino box office.

The promotion this past March visited Hammond for Bellator 60, which opened its sixth season. The main event was a featherweight title fight in which challenger Pat Curran took the belt from Joe Warren with a vicious third-round knockout.

“From the sold-out crowd to the incredible fights, our first visit to Horseshoe Casino in Hammond was something I will never forget,” Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney stated. “So getting back to The Venue was something I wanted to get done immediately. Our heavyweights always bring a great show with huge power and big KOs, so our fans in the Chicago area should be in for a great night of fights.”

In one of four heavyweight-tournament opening-round bouts, Eric Prindle (7-2 MMA, 3-1 BFC) gets his rematch with Thiago Santos (10-1 MMA, 2-0 BFC). The two were scheduled to fight at Bellator 61 earlier this year, but the bout was delayed a week due to Prindle’s illness. Then at Bellator 62, Santos couldn’t make weight, and the fight was scrapped. They originally fought at Bellator 59 in the Season 5 heavyweight tournament final, which resulted in a no-contest when Santos kicked a grounded Prindle in the groin in the first round.

“I love to fight, and after the win against Kevin [Aslpund], it gave me even more motivation to keep training hard and getting in there and do exactly what I know I can do, and give the fans a show,” Rogers stated.

Two other tournament bouts soon will be announced for the show.

Additionally, officials announced local fighter and former WEC fighter Chase Beebe (21-8-1 MMA, 1-1 BFC), who’s on an 8-1-1 run, will compete in a preliminary-card bout, though his opponent hasn’t been announced.